Episcopal Church repudiates
Doctrine of DiscoveryUrges US adoption of UN
Declaration
By Gale Courey Toensing
http://www.yesmagazine.org/justice/episcopal-church-repudiates-doctrine-of-discovery
Condensed by Native Village

California:
It is a first-of-its-kind action in the
Christian world. The National
Episcopal Church has passed a
landmark resolution called
“Repudiate the Doctrine of
Discovery." The bill disavows
the Doctrine of Discovery and
urges the U.S. government to
endorse the U.N. Declaration on
the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples.

“It’s a historic event,” said
Steven Newcomb, Shawnee/Lenape
about the church's resolution.
Newcomb is from the Sycuan Education Department,
the Indigenous Law Institute,
and a columnist for Indian
Country Today. His work on the Doctrine
of Discovery sparked the
Episcopal Church to pursue the
resolution.

The Doctrine of Discovery was
part of international law
based upon 15th
century papal bulls and 16th
century charters by European
monarchs. It
basically
gave
white Christian Europeans
approval to claim the lands and resources of
non-Christian peoples. It
also allowed Europeans to kill
or enslave them. In other words,
it sanctioned the genocide of
the "New World's native people.

The Episcopal church hopes
“Repudiate the Doctrine of
Discovery" will help bring
changes across the world. One
goal is to overturn a 1823 U.S.
Supreme Court ruling based on
the Doctrines of Discovery. In
"Johnson V. M'Intosh," the court
ruled that because of the
Doctrine of Discovery,
American Indians have a mere
right of occupancy to their
lands. This ruling is
foundational to U.S. Indian law.

But the
church calls the 1823 law and Congress’
assumption of power over
Indian nations, as
"illegitimate and immoral" and
says it strips American
Indian nations of their inherent
sovereignty.

"Repudiate the Doctrine of
Discovery" was passed
unanimously by the Episcopal
House of Bishops and by an
overwhelming majority of the
House of Delegates during the
church’s 76th General Convention
July 8 – 17 in Anaheim. The bill
says the doctrine is "fundamentally
opposed to the Gospel of Jesus
Christ and our understanding of
the inherent rights that
individuals and peoples have
received from God.”

The resolution is timely:
The U.N. Permanent Forum on
Indigenous Issues has called for
a study of the Doctrine of
Discovery and its historic and
continuing effects on indigenous
people. The study is to be
completed when the forum
convenes in 2010.

“The Episcopalian Church’s
resolution will no doubt factor
into that study,” Newcomb said.

Regarding
“Repudiate the
Doctrine of
Discovery", the
Episcopal Church
plans to

Share the document with its
churches, governments within its
boundaries, and the U .N.;Eliminate the
doctrine within the church’s
contemporary politics, programs
and structures, and urge the
U.S. government to
do the same;
Ask Queen Elizabeth
to publicly
repudiate the
Doctrine of
Discovery;
Encourage all
Episcopal churches to support
indigenous peoples' efforts to
regain their
inherent sovereignty, human rights,
and respect as as
peoples and nations.

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